Pledge Now!

NOVA Rat Attack

NOVA Rat Attack

Pictured: A black rat munches on corn in a field near Zamuang village in northeastern Mizoram.

Credit: James Lalsiamliana

NOVA follows this gripping tale of nature’s botanical mystery and the human misery that follows. Every 48 years, the inhabitants of the remote Indian state of Mizoram suffer a horrendous ordeal known locally as mautam. An indigenous species of bamboo, blanketing 30 percent of Mizoram’s 8,100 square miles, blooms once every half-century, spurring an explosion in the rat population that feeds off the bamboo’s fruit. NOVA follows this gripping tale of nature’s capacity to engender human suffering and investigates the botanical mystery of why the bamboo flowers with clockwork precision every half-century. NOVA Rat Attack airs Thursday, August 16, 2012 at 7 p.m. on WXXI World (cable 524/DT21.2)﻿.

Please note that the date and time presented in this preview differ from our local encore broadcast presentation.